The level of trip cancellations and lack of calls for new business, because of the coronavirus, are unprecedented in the 21 years travel consultant Becky Mitchell has spent at the East Lyme-based Klingerman Travel.

"We have never seen anything like this," she said this week. "Not even after 9/11, I don't remember travel being affected this way, and getting so many cancellations."

Along with China, South Korea and Japan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that travelers "avoid all nonessential travel" to Italy, which is the No. 1 European travel destination Klingerman sells.

Some people are losing all their money, while others can push their trips out, Mitchell said. Almost all school trips had been canceled regardless of the destination.

"We're a good business and run a good business, so we're not closing doors or anything," Mitchell said. She added, "There's not really much we can do."

Klingerman and other travel agencies in southeastern Connecticut are feeling the impact of the coronavirus, while some local manufacturers with a presence in China are restricting international travel but haven't yet felt an impact on their supply chains.

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, there have been at least 101,800 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, including more than 270 in the United States that resulted in 14 deaths.

On Friday evening, Gov. Ned Lamont tweeted that a Danbury Hospital and Norwalk Hospital employee who lives in New York tested positive for coronavirus.

The CDC lists fever, cough and shortness of breath as symptoms of COVID-19, short for coronavirus disease 2019, and experts believe the World Health Organization's global mortality rate estimate of 3.4% is likely to drop as more people get tested.

Fear of travel exists regardless of destination

Jill Weisberg, co-owner of the Waterford franchise of Cruise Planners, said she's "not getting many, if any, new bookings right now." Clients who already booked their trips are holding off, while those who contacted her with an interest in booking have come back to say they'll wait and see.

"I think it's across the board," Weisberg said, not just for travel to China or Italy. "People are just afraid, and it's not just going overseas, it's fear of the airport, and just going out in public."

She hears a lot of misconceptions, with people coming to her saying cruise ships are causing the virus — they're not — and that ships aren't doing anything, when actually they're enhancing sanitation procedures and screenings.

Bill Potuchek of Dream Vacation Travels in Ledyard also said new business has dropped considerably.

"Existing clients are nervous in different degrees with most traveling," he said by email from St. Lucia. "I keep each client informed of any virus updates which could impact them."

AAA spokesperson Amy Parmenter said if agents know someone had travel plans in an affected area, they will reach out and inform the client of possibilities. Parmenter said AAA has been getting a lot of questions about travel insurance.

"Our answer really is: Policies differ and you have to read your policy, so there is no one-size-fits-all answer," she said.

John Traynor, chief investment officer at People's United Advisers in Bridgeport, pointed to drops in airline stocks.

He predicted that more people are going to be opting for staycations over vacations this summer, adding this means the tourism industry within Connecticut could do well.

But he is most concerned about the state's advanced manufacturing companies, many of which have global supply chains and source either raw materials or high-end finished products from around the world.

Impacts on manufacturers

The Pawcatuck-based manufacturer Davis-Standard said in an email on Feb. 19 that it had suspended travel to China, and that while it does source some components from Asia, the impact on the supply chain has been minimal.

"In the event the impact of the virus extends further, and factories are unable to reopen for a number of weeks, we will reorder parts from other geographic locations," the email said. "If we do have to order parts from other locations, there could be potential delays of up to two weeks."

The presence of Davis-Standard in China includes a factory in Suzhou and an office in Shanghai, which are respectively about 462 and 522 miles from Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak emerged in December.

Chief Procurement Officer Hassan Gangji said Davis-Standard sources a lot of different products from China, including assembled electrical panels, mechanical components and castings.

But the Suzhou factory has reopened since the mid-February update, and Gangji said it's "back to pretty much 100%, and most suppliers are north of 80-85% back to capacity."

He explained that the factory already had planned to be closed around the Chinese New Year holiday on Feb. 12, and so Davis-Standard had adjusted purchasing volumes before the holiday. The Chinese government then extended the closure because of the coronavirus.

Gangji said Davis-Standard shifted a few orders to other places around the globe, and some parts from China were sent to the U.S. by air freight rather than the usual sea freight, to make up for delays.

Kara Bell, vice president of human resources at Davis-Standard, said employees were planning to go to a big trade show in China in April but that has been postponed to August. Employees also occasionally may travel to South Korea, Iran and Italy for field service work but travel there has been suspended, as well. The company has been conducting meetings via video conferencing.

One Connecticut company that relies heavily on ingredients from China is the Fairfield-based Bigelow Tea Co., The Hartford Courant reported last year in an article about the impact of the trade war with China.

But in an email to The Day this week, CEO Cindi Bigelow said she is "not at all concerned with the availability of green tea due to the impact of the coronavirus. Currently we have over 10 months supply of product stateside."

Pfizer spokesperson Steve Danehy said in an email that the company has suspended business travel to and from mainland China and is limiting international travel to that which is business-essential.

He said all of Pfizer's plants in impacted places worldwide are open and operational, and that Pfizer has not seen any disruption to its supply chain.

As for drug-testing to combat COVID-19, Pfizer recently completed a preliminary assessment of compounds that stopped similar coronaviruses from replicating, Danehy said. Pfizer hopes to have results from screening those compounds by the end of March, and to be in the clinic by the end of 2020.

Anne Evans, Connecticut district director for the U.S. Department of Commerce, was on a business trip in Australia on Thursday when she took a call from The Day. She was being brought back Friday even though she was originally supposed to return Monday, and said people from around the world were leaving the conference because of the coronavirus.

"It's a worldwide topic," Evans said. "Every minute, everybody's talking about it."

e.moser@theday.com